Graduate Assistants Benefit From and Bring Value to Division of Student Affairs

Throughout the Division of Student Affairs, graduate assistants work closely with Student Affairs staff to further promote the mission of the division – helping students succeed.

Across the Division of Student Affairs, close to 50 graduate assistants are hard at work writing reports, working events and developing their professional skills all the while helping the division to improve and affect change for the campus community.

"Our graduate assistants are working to help our students be successful through student engagement and encouraging persistence by helping to create programs that reflect our division's mission, which speaks directly to the university's mission," Everrett Smith, director of assessment for the division, said. "We have a number of signature programs and services that our graduate assistants either partially lead or steward. They not only gain valuable experiences, but I believe that our graduate assistants play ground-level roles in interacting with our students every day." 

Smith was once a graduate assistant for the Division of Student Affairs doing a job similar to the one he currently holds. Smith said he not only sees the benefit of graduate assistants to the student for their own professional and academic development, but also the benefit to the university community as a whole.

Smith said his assistantship gave him a unique perspective into the day-to-day life of Student Affairs leadership.

"I was able to witness aspects of bureaucracy, challenges within decision making and the positive impact that a senior student affairs officer has the productivity of a college campus. I better understood the evolving issues and concerns in the field; something you will not always get through a textbook or journal article," Smith said. "I was able to develop and sharpen some of my leadership skills because I was presented with opportunities that were unique and a little bit different from the traditional GA, and allowed me to gain essential experiences as a policy student with a variety of professional interests."

Learning While Working

Laura Wagner, graduate assistant for the assistant vice provost of finance and administration in Student Affairs, is pursuing her graduate degree in higher education. Wagner said her assistantship has allowed her to work on many different projects.

"I'm currently a teaching assistant for the hospitality program. I've worked on room and space analysis reports, presentations, new budgets and spearheaded a new exhibit for the Arkansas Union," Wagner said. "I work closely with my boss, and since his emphasis is in finance, I'm really getting a unique perspective I wouldn't have gotten in the classroom."

Wagner has the opportunity to contract with the university for next two years to continue the work she's been doing as well as expanding her work with students, since her end goal is to some day become a dean.

While she's not sure what next year will bring, she's thankful for the professional development her assistantship has provided her.

"Sometimes its hard to know what path you should take to get to where you want to be in higher education, so that's why I'm trying to position myself to take in the best experiences to get there," Wagner said. "Coming out of college, I feel like I wasn't necessarily prepared to be in the work force, and now I feel much more confident in myself."

Data Collection

One of the expanding areas of Student Affairs that graduate assistants are helping with is data collection.

"We're finding out things about our students that we never knew before or at least not to the extent that we know now," Smith said. "That's the power of data collection and analysis, and that's why we're focusing on that as a division. We want to retain students, we want to engage students and we want to help students persist and increase the likelihood of them succeeding here at the University of Arkansas. And who better to be conducting these surveys and analyzing the data than students themselves." 

Kuatbay Bektemirov, career development graduate assistant, works with one thing and one thing only – graduation survey information.

Bektemirov is currently pursuing a doctorate in public policy at the university and is focusing his research on agricultural policy. He uses graduating senior surveys to capture information about matriculating students of the university to better serve current and future students.

"My research affects university rankings, but also allows future students to better understand their opportunities here," Bektemirov said.

Through his graduate assistantship, Bektemirov said he is strengthening his analytical and data processing skills; skills that will not only help his own professional development but will bring up the standards of University data collection across the board.

"Students are doing great things here, but we won't know about them if the information is not collected and then distributed," Bektemirov said.

Greek Life Operations

Carissa Kelly, Greek Life graduate assistant, said her time in Greek Life during her undergraduate degree greatly influenced her want to work for the division. Kelly is pursuing a graduate degree in operations management and said she had never really considered a career in Student Affairs. After being approached to work in the Greek Life office, she is now seriously considering a career in it upon completion of her degree.

"I've received countless opportunities through my assistantship," Kelly said. "I get to work with an amazing group of students on a daily basis. I've been able to travel to several professional development conferences, gotten experience in risk management, helped organize one of the largest recruitment processes and put on multiple entertainment and educational events for students."

Kelly said the experiences and opportunities she's had working for Greek Life have been integral to her academic career at the university.

"My assistantship has definitely prepared me for life after graduation," Kelly said. "It has enabled me to receive amazing hands on experience in management. I've been put into positions that have pushed me and allowed me to grow as a person while pursuing my degree."

Giving Back to Fellow Students

Kelly said she loves working for the Division of Student Affairs because she gets the opportunity to touch student's lives the way the division touched hers.

"One of the reasons why I love my job so much is that I get to give back to not only the division but the University of Arkansas for all it's done for me," Kelly said. "With my assistantship, I get to see first hand how so many pour into students on a daily basis. As an undergraduate student here I was able to be on the receiving end of that enrichment process, but through my assistantship I've been able to connect with the division and the university on a different and even more impactful level. I've seen how hard the division works to see their students succeed."

"I think that our staff and graduate assistants work hard and work smart," Smith said. "The opportunities to do well and be successful or start a career after serving in a graduate assistantship in the Division of Student Affairs are robust. I don't think a student should have any type of hesitation about what they could accomplish once they leave the University of Arkansas working in the Division of Student Affairs."

Smith said students for all academic backgrounds and interests can find a place in the division, even if they don't have any experience in higher education.

"In the past, many of our assistantships were awarded to students enrolled in the higher education program, and while we still welcome and continue to be excited about those applicants, we are also looking for individuals with interests outside of higher education," Smith said. "This is one of the reasons why we are hosting two interview days for graduate assistants this year. We want to demonstrate on a new level how committed we are to serving the institution as a division by engaging students from multiple disciplines."

GA Position Interview Days for the Division of Student Affairs will be held on Dec. 3 and Feb. 26. The deadline for applications for Dec. 3 is Nov. 9 by midnight. The application period will resume on Dec. 23 for the Feb. 26 interview day, and the deadline will be Jan. 25 by midnight. For more information about the GA Positions Interview Days, contact Student Affairs graduate student coordinators at avpsaga1@uark.edu.